


A Risk Finally Taken

by Kharasma



Category: Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Power Rangers
Genre: Awkwardness, Day At The Beach, F/M, First Kiss, Friends to Lovers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-18
Updated: 2013-12-18
Packaged: 2018-01-05 01:03:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,957
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1087742
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kharasma/pseuds/Kharasma
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Billy thinks he's headed for a seaside study day with Trini, but that's not exactly what she has in mind. That awkward thing between them finally comes to a head.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Risk Finally Taken

Unlike most beachgoers, Billy wasn’t crossing the sands in pursuit of sunshine and waves, but for the different type of pleasurable activity that awaited him. He knew that his best friend Trini would be on this beach under a red umbrella, biology books in hand. Their next exam focused on marine life, and as Trini had suggested, spending their study time close to the subjects of the test was likely to improve their recall on the relevant concepts.  
  
Luckily, the beach was deserted enough at this time on a late spring morning that he spotted the lone red umbrella quickly. Billy broke into a jog when he spotted it, definitely eager to get started. Thoughts of ocean currents and tidal waves filtered through his mind as he gave himself a refresher, hoping to start off the session on the right foot. Trini was always happy for him when things went smoothly, right?  
  
Just then, he was spotted by his target. She lifted her arm in a cheerful wave. “Hi Billy!”  
  
No, it seemed that Billy’s plans would not be going off smoothly. Trini was there, as promised, but her books were not. Neither were her usual clothes, he noticed...instead, she wore a short-cropped black swimming top and black bottoms, half-covered by a flowing yellow wrap. Her hair  was swept over one shoulder, tucked behind a yellow headband, and he spotted the faint shimmer of recently applied sunscreen on her arms. Billy quickly pressed his lips together, forcefully diverting himself from this line of thought. That was not what he was meant to study today at all.  
  
“...good morning, Trini!” Billy said, maybe a little too loudly. “I didn’t know you wanted to engage in recreational activities before the study session. Am I too early?”  
  
When Billy finally seemed able to look at her face again, he was surprised to find Trini covering her mouth with the back of her wrist. He could hear stifled giggles.  “No, you’re not too early. You’re exactly on time.”  
  
That answer seemed to relax him. Billy smiled and swung the bag down from his shoulder, pulling out the books one by one. “You didn’t want to risk damaging your books with water? That’s all right, I brought spare copies of everything. Did you want to start with marine animal life or plant life?”  
  
His questions spurred a familiar all-knowing smile from Trini. “Actually, I wasn’t thinking about that either, Billy. I think we’ve gone over these notes enough times. Why don’t we relax and enjoy the sunshine today?” Trini pulled herself out of her chair to ease his books back into his bag. Billy shuffled from foot to foot, doubt still plaguing his mind.  
  
“But I’m seriously concerned about our performance---”  
  
Trini cut him off with a question. “Are seabirds endotherms or ectotherms?”  
  
“Ectotherms.”  
  
“Which are the only vegetarians among marine mammals?”  
  
“Sirenians.”  
  
“And did the earliest whales have blowholes?”  
  
“No.”  
  
“See?” Trini smiled, reaching over to nudge Billy’s arm away from his book while she picked it up. “We’ve been studying for a week. _You know this_. I thought we could take today to give our brains a rest and have some fun.”  
  
Billy took a step back---the results of her quiz had reassured him, but this was all a little sudden. “I’m hoping to avoid a repeat of the bee exam’s results...”  
  
“You will, trust me. No more Bs for you, Billy Cranston. And I don’t want you to wear yourself out. It’s good for the brain to rest every now and then, to mull over what you’ve learned before you strain to make new neural connections. It’s just like what I told you about working your other muscles too fast.”  
  
Trini said all this with a conviction that Billy knew he would find himself bending to...and as she sat up and touched his arm, all ready for a day at the beach, he suspected he’d lost this battle before it had begun.  
  
“You brought me here under false pretenses,” he accused softly, but there was no malice in his words.  
  
“I had to get you here somehow,” she shrugged, leaning forward to bop him gently on the nose with a finger.  
  
Billy coughed lightly. “Uh...but I’m afraid I didn’t dress appropriately for your planned activities,” he admitted, glancing down at the somewhat thick polo and jeans he wore.  
  
“That’s all right. I planned for that too,” Trini smiled, rolling over to reach for her bag. What she did bring to the beach turned out to be a beach ball, some sunscreen, two sandwiches and drinks, and her morpher. The last item was a pair of black swimming trunks with blue stripes on the sides, which she held out to him. “There’s a shower stall near the dunes behind us. Get dressed and we’ll get going, okay?”  
  
With one look at Trini’s hopeful face, Billy knew he’d definitely lost. And if he was honest with himself, he didn’t really mind. So he shuffled off to change, pleased to find that the trunks were in his size. He was less pleased to find that there wasn’t a more appropriate shirt to wear: the polo he wore was too thick and would retain moisture for hours. Billy fussed with the hem of it for a few moments, but in the end he peeled off his shirt before stepping outside.  
  
When he finally appeared back at the umbrella, he was surprised to find a silent Trini. Her gaze swept over him from head to toe, hesitating on his chest for a noticeable moment longer. Finally, her mouth moved, the words so quiet that Billy had to strain to hear them.  
  
“...oh wow, Billy,” Trini breathed, gaze fixed on his navel as she said this.  
  
“What was that?” Billy lifted an eyebrow, sounding genuinely confused. And perhaps a little worried.  
  
“I mean...wow, Billy, you’d better use this before you burn up!” she amended, pressing her bottle of sunscreen into his hands. When he obediently started to lather up, Trini bit the inside of her cheek and stared at the towel at her feet.  
  
Billy worked in silence at first, feeling an unpleasant buzz in the back of his head. Trini was surprised by his appearance, that much was clear, but the question in his mind was why. Was he too pale, did he look sick? Was something wrong with the trunks? Billy glanced down in horror and saw nothing wrong, thankfully, but...  
  
A glance over at Trini revealed little: her arms were wrapped around her knees, and she seemed to be studying the ocean intensely. The silence was so unlike them...finally forcing Billy into talking.  
  
“Where did you get the swimming trunks, Trini? I didn’t recognize them,” he asked, at a loss for other questions.  
  
“You can blame Kimberly for that. She was planning on dragging everyone out next week for a pre-summer beach bash, and she insisted that everyone was going to come out in style. I just borrowed yours from her for the day.”  
  
“Does she know about this?”  
  
“No. It’s just us. I don’t know how the others are going to take it next week.”  
  
“Well, I hope all goes well,” Billy added. “I’m just glad I have the forewarning before I debut this look in public,” he admitted, rubbing his arm.  
  
“You’ll be fine, Billy. I have to admit Kim has a good eye,” Trini said quietly, already feeling her cheeks heating up despite the layer of sunscreen.  
  
“She does?” Billy asked, sounding incredulous as he folded an arm back over his shoulder to reach his shoulder blades.  
  
“Sure. You’ve grown a lot over the past year, and it shows,” Trini answered, leaving Billy speechless for once. He could only scratch at the back of his neck, glancing down at his knees with the smallest of smiles.  
  
Trini opened her mouth to speak some more, cut herself off once, and sat in silence for another awkward moment. But she was soon inspired to act again. Trini gently squeezed his shoulder...and her voice might’ve trembled a little as she made another suggestion. “I’ll get your back for you, okay?” Billy acquiesced with a positive-sounding murmur, turning his back to her.  
  
 Trini found herself fighting a surprising level of anxiety as she warmed the sunscreen in her hands. When she’d met Billy those few years ago, she’d easily reached her hand out to the scrawny boy cowering in too-big overalls, feeling the overwhelming urge to protect the only other person in class who knew what nuclear fission was. That boy was now a young man laying his life on the line for this town, just like her...and he’d filled out rather nicely, she mused as her hands skimmed muscle.  
  
“I mean....did you look at yourself, Billy?” Trini asked. “You’re not the guy Bulk and Skull used to dump in trash cans anymore.”  
  
“All because I’m a Ranger, right?” Billy mused aloud. “I guess the metamorphosis was more thorough than we expected.”  
  
“I don’t think it was just the Power changing you,” Trini disagreed, shaking her head. “I mean...you’ve changed more than any of us when you didn’t have to. The Power would’ve helped you keep up with us in fights even if you’d never learned martial arts. And you were afraid at first because you can’t learn martial arts the same way you learn other things. But that never stopped you. You did it all yourself,” Trini said, squeezing his shoulder proudly.  
  
“I couldn’t let myself drag the team down with my inexperience” he explained, tracing patterns in the sand with his toes. “You guys always stepped out of your way to protect me...especially you, Trini. If you’d gotten hurt because of me, I wouldn’t have forgiven myself.” Billy turned back around to face her, worry crossing his eyes. “So I forced myself to be brave, like you. ”  
  
“Like me?” Trini wondered, now the one looking surprised. “If you’re looking for bravery, I’d have to suggest Jason as your role model.”  
  
“Even I realize that bravado and bravery are different.” Billy explained, scooting closer to Trini. “Not that he doesn’t have both, he does, but...you express it differently. You accept danger and find a way to work around it. You’ve always been cautious when the situation warrants it...but you know when to take a risk,” he added.  
  
Now that Billy was so close to her, Trini could see the intensity of his gaze. Cool green eyes that she’d so rarely seen behind his old glasses...but they were clearer behind Billy’s new gold-rimmed pair, and she found she really liked it.  
  
Risk...oh, she could definitely think of a risk she wanted to take right now. But she still wasn’t entirely certain.  
  
“You really think that’s me?” Trini asked.  
  
“I know it is,” Billy answered, sure as ever.  
  
Well...Trini had a risk-taking reputation to uphold, didn’t she? With a silent prayer to the heavens that she hadn’t misread the entire situation, she leaned in, slipped her fingers up to the base of Billy’s neck, and brought his mouth to hers in a brief but undeniably solid kiss---too brief for her to really tell if he’d kissed back.  
  
“Like that?” Trini asked when she broke away a moment later. Her voice sounded pitifully small. Her heart felt like it would burst out of her throat in a gory scene straight from one of Zack’s favorite horror flicks.  
  
But as Trini watched, scrutinizing him for any sort of reaction,  Billy’s shocked expression slowly shifted into a goofy grin, a face-splitting smile the likes of which she’d never seen on his face.  
  
“Precisely.” And then he bravely kissed her again.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm pretty sure Billy and Trini were my first ship ever. This was just my attempt at getting my idea of their relationship out my head and on paper. It's not quite what I was hoping to nail, but at least it's a start!


End file.
